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adjective
Hard  adj.  (compar. harder; superl. hardest)  
1.
Not easily penetrated, cut, or separated into parts; not yielding to pressure; firm; solid; compact; applied to material bodies, and opposed to soft; as, hard wood; hard flesh; a hard apple.
2.
Difficult, mentally or judicially; not easily apprehended, decided, or resolved; as a hard problem. "The hard causes they brought unto Moses." "In which are some things hard to be understood."
3.
Difficult to accomplish; full of obstacles; laborious; fatiguing; arduous; as, a hard task; a disease hard to cure.
4.
Difficult to resist or control; powerful. "The stag was too hard for the horse." " A power which will be always too hard for them."
5.
Difficult to bear or endure; not easy to put up with or consent to; hence, severe; rigorous; oppressive; distressing; unjust; grasping; as, a hard lot; hard times; hard fare; a hard winter; hard conditions or terms. "I never could drive a hard bargain."
6.
Difficult to please or influence; stern; unyielding; obdurate; unsympathetic; unfeeling; cruel; as, a hard master; a hard heart; hard words; a hard character.
7.
Not easy or agreeable to the taste; harsh; stiff; rigid; ungraceful; repelling; as, a hard style. "Figures harder than even the marble itself."
8.
Rough; acid; sour, as liquors; as, hard cider.
9.
(Pron.) Abrupt or explosive in utterance; not aspirated, sibilated, or pronounced with a gradual change of the organs from one position to another; said of certain consonants, as c in came, and g in go, as distinguished from the same letters in center, general, etc.
10.
Wanting softness or smoothness of utterance; harsh; as, a hard tone.
11.
(Painting)
(a)
Rigid in the drawing or distribution of the figures; formal; lacking grace of composition.
(b)
Having disagreeable and abrupt contrasts in the coloring or light and shade.
Hard cancer, Hard case, etc. See under Cancer, Case, etc.
Hard clam, or Hard-shelled clam (Zool.), the quahog.
Hard coal, anthracite, as distinguished from bituminous coal (soft coal).
Hard and fast. (Naut.) See under Fast.
Hard finish (Arch.), a smooth finishing coat of hard fine plaster applied to the surface of rough plastering.
Hard lines, hardship; difficult conditions.
Hard money, coin or specie, as distinguished from paper money.
Hard oyster (Zool.), the northern native oyster. (Local, U. S.)
Hard pan, the hard stratum of earth lying beneath the soil; hence, figuratively, the firm, substantial, fundamental part or quality of anything; as, the hard pan of character, of a matter in dispute, etc. See Pan.
Hard rubber. See under Rubber.
Hard solder. See under Solder.
Hard water, water, which contains lime or some mineral substance rendering it unfit for washing. See Hardness, 3.
Hard wood, wood of a solid or hard texture; as walnut, oak, ash, box, and the like, in distinction from pine, poplar, hemlock, etc.
In hard condition, in excellent condition for racing; having firm muscles; said of race horses.
Synonyms: Solid; arduous; powerful; trying; unyielding; stubborn; stern; flinty; unfeeling; harsh; difficult; severe; obdurate; rigid. See Solid, and Arduous.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Hard" Quotes from Famous Books



... Originally Mr. Beardsell was a Methodist;—a Methodist preacher, too, we believe; but in time he changed his notions; and eventually flung himself, in a direct line, into the arms of "Mother Church." Mr. Beardsell made his first appearance in Preston as curate of Trinity Church. He worked hard in this capacity, stirred up the district at times with that peculiar energy which poor curates longing for good incumbencies, wherein they may settle down into security and ease, can only manifest, and with many he was a favourite. From Trinity Church he went to St. Saviour's, and here he slackened ...
— Our Churches and Chapels • Atticus

... coach on my arrival here; but, what was my surprise and disappointment, when, instead of this, he began to sound in my ears? "that the interest of money was low, very low; and what a terrible thing it was to be encumbered with a little regiment of servants in these hard times!" I could easily perceive what all this tended to, but would not seem to understand him; which made it highly necessary for Mr. Savecharges to explain himself more intelligibly; to harp upon and protest he dreaded the expense of keeping a coach. And truly, for his part, ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson in Nine Volumes - Volume IV: The Adventurer; The Idler • Samuel Johnson

... was hard up in search of, a French "chestnut," I might have told him the following little anecdote. It is more funny than his, and would have been less insulting: Two little street boys are abusing each other. "Ah, hold your tongue," says one, "you ain't ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... happy; politics would no longer be reduced to the exigency of deceiving them, in order to restrain them; nor to destroy so many unfortunates, for having procured necessaries, at the expence of their hard-hearted fellow-citizens. ...
— The System of Nature, Vol. 1 • Baron D'Holbach

... Church, for which he had not any liking, he was by far too conscientious to embrace only as a means of living. There remained the Bar; and to that he turned his attention, and resolved to qualify himself for it. That there would be grinding, and drudgery, and hard work, and no pay for years, he knew; but, so there might be, go to what he would. The Bar did hold out a chance of success, and there was nothing in it derogatory to the notions in which he had been reared—those of ...
— Verner's Pride • Mrs. Henry Wood

... but also wyth good lawes/ And therfore shold they laboure that they shold be well kept Turgeus pompeyus reherceth of a noble knyght named Ligurgyus that had made auncyent lawes the whiche the peple wold not kepe ne obserue/ For they semed hard for them to kepe And wold constrayne hym to rapele & sette hem a part whan the noble knight sawe that He dyde the peple to vnderstande that he had not made them/ but a god that was named Apollo delphynus. had made them/ ...
— Game and Playe of the Chesse - A Verbatim Reprint Of The First Edition, 1474 • Caxton

... faces of a lump of coal will present impressions, which are obviously those of the stem, or leaves, of a plant; but though hard mineral masses of pyrites, and even fine mud, may occur here and there, neither sand nor pebbles ...
— Critiques and Addresses • Thomas Henry Huxley

... Scevin. Nothing is hard to them that dare to die. This nobler resolution in you, Lords, Heartens me to disclose some thoughts that I— The matter ...
— Old English Plays, Vol. I - A Collection of Old English Plays • Various

... people she had come to love; moreover, the mysterious something which caused her to know that "one man loved the pilgrim soul" in her, could not be ignored. To her trusted friend Pastor Hsi, however, she did turn for advice, and while many fellow-workers found it hard to express their indignation and regret, he, with a clearness of outlook only possible where there is absence of prejudice, told her that while he could not regard it as a sin for a Christian man and woman of different ...
— The Fulfilment of a Dream of Pastor Hsi's - The Story of the Work in Hwochow • A. Mildred Cable

... into hysterics, or faint. The occasion proved indeed too much for her; that night she did not close her eyes, and the next day saw her prostrate in nervous exhaustion. But she seemed to pick up her strength again very quickly, and was soon hard at work ...
— Denzil Quarrier • George Gissing

... the river; a kind and gentle old woodman, much stronger than he looked. He knew the value of fur and the danger of wetting it, so he took no chances in doubtful rapids. This meant many portages and much hard labour. ...
— Rolf In The Woods • Ernest Thompson Seton

... Brown, with a little force of 2,600 men, tried to invade Canada, and was met first by General Riall, and later by General Drummond, with practically equal forces. Here the Americans actually fought, and fought hard, winning a slight success at Chippawa on July 5, and engaging {229} in a drawn battle at Lundy's Lane on July 25. Later forced to take refuge in Fort Erie, Brown made a successful defence against Drummond, and obliged him to abandon an effort ...
— The Wars Between England and America • T. C. Smith

... required not sympathy, Helen was reduced to be a mere silent, stupid, useless stander-by, and she could not but feel this a little awkward. She tried to interest herself for the poor people in the neighbourhood, but their language was unintelligible to her, and her's to them, and it is hard work trying to make objects for oneself in quite a new place, and with a pre-occupying sorrow in the mind all the time. It was not only hard work to Helen, but it seemed labour in vain— bringing soil by handfulls to a barren rock, where, after ...
— Helen • Maria Edgeworth

... was hard when she prayed me for her sake to give way; against harshness I had been rigid as steel, but to remain steadfast when my darling mother, whom I loved as I loved nothing else on earth, begged me on her knees to yield, was indeed ...
— Autobiographical Sketches • Annie Besant

... little better. I guess he'll have to be Manlio to me. Bring him along, whatever happens, and then let's pray hard to ...
— Aurora the Magnificent • Gertrude Hall

... seems from a sociological standpoint to be those forms of conduct which conduce to social harmony, to social efficiency, and so to the survival of the group. Groups, however, as we have already pointed out, cannot do as they please. They are always hard-pressed in competition by other groups and have to meet the standards of efficiency which nature imposes. Morality, therefore, is not anything arbitrarily designed by the group, but is a standard of conduct which necessities of social survival require. ...
— Sociology and Modern Social Problems • Charles A. Ellwood

... desire to feed well at Sunday's dinner, to spend at least a quarter on that meal. It was something to be looked forward to throughout the entire week. But to get twenty-five cents ahead when he was out of work was bitter hard. That week he had started out with the determination to eat but two meals a day. He would thus save five cents daily and by Sunday morning would be thirty cents to the good. But each day his resolution broke ...
— Vandover and the Brute • Frank Norris

... Borlish," said he, still paying his mnemonic tribute to the other names of our syndicate; "nothing to be spoken of as hard times; and as for panic, the financial world is too well organized for that ever to happen again! But a little tightening of things, Mr. Cornings, to sort of clear the decks for action on lines of conservatism ...
— Aladdin & Co. - A Romance of Yankee Magic • Herbert Quick

... Hexagons, and other figures, instead of remaining fixed in their places, move freely about, on or in the surface, but without the power of rising above or sinking below it, very much like shadows—only hard with luminous edges—and you will then have a pretty correct notion of my country and countrymen. Alas, a few years ago, I should have said "my universe:" but now my mind has been opened to higher views ...
— Flatland • Edwin A. Abbott

... my hand is hard, Remember I've been buffeting at will; I am a whit impatient, and 'tis ill To cross a hungry ...
— The Port of Missing Men • Meredith Nicholson

... think what I am saying now is hard, remember what I said to you before I knew this—no longer ago than yesterday morning. That will give you some idea of how I believed in you, father—and some idea of what ...
— Three Comedies • Bjornstjerne M. Bjornson

... ribbed nose, falling down sharp like the beak of a hawk; with a long rumpill' [tail].[158] This was Barbara Napier's account; Agnes Sampson describes the same personage, 'The deuell caused all the company to com and kiss his ers, quhilk they said was cauld like yce; his body was hard lyk yrn, as they thocht that handled him; his faice was terrible, his noise lyk the bek of an egle, gret bournyng eyn: his handis and legis wer herry, with clawis vpon his handis and feit lyk the griffon, and spak with a how voice.'[159] ...
— The Witch-cult in Western Europe - A Study in Anthropology • Margaret Alice Murray

... they had to say, replied: "Such language addressed to us by you, of all people, is hard to answer. Yet for the sake of the young man with you, I will attempt to do so, that at least he may learn how different your nature is from ours. We," he continued, "before we were your friends, had the free run of this country, moving this way or that, ...
— Anabasis • Xenophon

... her, told her of the great musicians and singers that the world had known, described the opera houses of Europe, the brilliant audiences, the splendid ballets, the great orchestras, and promised her that if she worked hard, she might one day become a part of all this. She had learned to believe him now, for she saw that as time went on he was more exacting with her work, more sparing in his praise of her, and she had worked hard—in ...
— The Vagrant Duke • George Gibbs

... his brow a loaded pistol and wondering, "What if I were to pull the trigger?" or in feeling, when he catches sight of some universally respected personage, that he would like to go up to him, pull his nose hard, and say, "How do you do, ...
— Boyhood • Leo Tolstoy

... a light rifle. It was but the work of a moment to unsling and level it. The sharp crack followed, and the ball impinged between the monster's eyes, glancing harmlessly from his hard skull as though it had been a plate of steel. The shot was an idle one, perhaps worse; for, stung to madness with the stunning shock, the reptile sprang far out into the water, and made directly for ...
— The Rifle Rangers • Captain Mayne Reid

... entrance, he was required to say Domine labia mea aperies; when, if an answer came, he might enter and say matins with his master. In a second cave the saint slept. Outside this is the point of rock from which according to the Fiorette: "Through all that Lent, a falcon, whose nest was hard by his cell, awakened S. Francis every night a little before the hour of matins by her cry and the flapping of her wings, and would not leave off till he had risen to say the office; and if at any time S. Francis was more sick than ordinary, or weak, or weary, ...
— Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe • Sabine Baring-Gould

... possessed themselves with heroic patience, and went on with the work. They did not even have the satisfaction of returning the Spanish fire, but the marines in the stern of the boat shot hard ...
— The Boys of '98 • James Otis

... of old time, a Falcon who made himself a nest hard by the home of a Locust, and his neighbour gloried in such neighbourhood and betaking herself to him, saluted him with the salam and said, "O my lord and lord of all the birds, indeed the nearness to thee delighteth me and thou honourest me with thy vicinity ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton

... hard destiny, fines, punishments, the oppression of soldiers, quartered upon them, and a partial loss of their rights, were looked for by the inhabitants of Rapperschweil, the people in Caster and the free bailiwicks, and especially the cities of Bremgarten and Mellingen. Zurich had attempted ...
— The Life and Times of Ulric Zwingli • Johann Hottinger

... honey, raisins, and, last of all, brought a dainty piece of cheese from a basket. The Country Mouse, being much delighted at the sight of such good cheer, expressed his satisfaction in warm terms, and lamented his own hard fate. Just as they were beginning to eat, some one opened the door, and they both ran off squeaking, as fast as they could, to a hole so narrow that two could only find room in it by squeezing. They had scarcely again ...
— Aesop's Fables - A New Revised Version From Original Sources • Aesop

... of the founder have been faithfully carried out. The wisdom of Sutton in entrusting his institution to the management of governors, who have always been men of eminence in church and state, rather than in attempting to lay down hard and fast rules for its guidance, ...
— Memorials of Old London - Volume I • Various

... around me, indistinct, Vague, meaningless—seemed to resolve themselves Into a language I could understand; I felt my frame pervaded with a glow That seemed to thaw my marble into flesh; Its cold hard substance throbbed with active life, My limbs grew supple, and I moved—I lived! Lived in the ecstasy of new born life; Lived in the love of him that fashioned me; Lived in a thousand tangled thoughts of hope, Love, ...
— Standard Selections • Various

... left to be decided separately for each individual case. The difficulty which meets the statesman is the same as that which meets us all in individual life, in which our abstract rights are generally clear enough, though it is frequently extremely hard to say at what point it is wise to cease ...
— Critiques and Addresses • Thomas Henry Huxley

... to the gods I announced, to the gods foretold the evil. This exterminating war foretold Against my race of mankind. Not for this bare I men that like the brood of the fishes They should fill the sea. Then wept the gods with her over the Anunnaki, In lamentation sat the gods, their lips hard pressed together. Six days and seven nights ruled wind and flood and storm. But when the seventh day broke, subsided the storm, and ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 1 • Charles Dudley Warner

... the question as to whether his present sad condition is attributable to the injury mentioned, it seems to me the extension of pension relief to such cases would open the door to legislation hard to justify and impossible to ...
— Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Volume 8, Section 2 (of 2): Grover Cleveland • Grover Cleveland

... After hard work the men who had been tossed into the water when the boat went over managed to get it right side up again. Then a rope was made fast to it and horses on shore, pulling on the cable, hauled the boat up out of reach of the waves, ...
— Six Little Bunkers at Cousin Tom's • Laura Lee Hope

... sanctity." Some persons wrongfully attributed to the influence of Saint-Vallier the order which detained the worthy bishop in France; on the contrary, Saint-Vallier had said one day to the minister, "It would be very hard for a bishop who has founded this church and who desires to go and die in its midst, to see himself detained in France. If Mgr. de Laval should stay here the blame would be cast upon his successor, against whom for this reason many people would ...
— The Makers of Canada: Bishop Laval • A. Leblond de Brumath

... he was feeling for an opening, and since it was hard to put him off, answered with a smile: "You are a persistent fellow, and I'm not fond of argument. I ...
— The Lure of the North • Harold Bindloss

... you are wishful to be withering 'Tis hard to be confined to "blithering," And to express explosive thinkin' One longs for some ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 153, Oct. 10, 1917 • Various

... beautiful day so far as the weather and scenery are concerned but a very hard one. We have been amongst 'Pressure,' with a capital P, all day, hauling up and lowering the sledges with an alpine rope and twisting and turning in all directions, with waves and hills, monuments, statues, and fairy palaces all around ...
— The Home of the Blizzard • Douglas Mawson

... but he won't! I never saw such a resolute old curmudgeon; and then he's so proud, too! He's like a hard-baked stone jar—he won't bend anyhow. I know why he gave me his snuff-box: it was because I happened to help myself to a pinch out of the dirty old trumpery! If he, or you, or all of you, by any chance happened to live in England, or any other civilized country, this poor count, and ...
— Poems • George P. Morris

... a subject of pride and satisfaction that our volunteer citizen soldiers, who so promptly responded to their country's call, with an experience of the discipline of a camp of only a few weeks, have borne their part in the hard-fought battle of Monterey with a constancy and courage equal to that of veteran troops and worthy of the highest admiration. The privations of long marches through the enemy's country and through a wilderness have been borne without ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... every mortal lot! Which man, proud man, finds hard to bear, And builds himself I know not what Of second life I know ...
— The Home Book of Verse, Vol. 4 (of 4) • Various

... Toenne. She wished to have a strong and healthy husband. She thought it would be a poor livelihood to marry any one who was weak and dull. Still, there was much which drew her to that silent, shy man. She thought how hard he had worked to gladden his mother and had not enjoyed the happiness of being ready in time. She could weep for his sake. And now he was building the house just where he had seen her dance. He had a good heart. And that interested her and fixed her ...
— Invisible Links • Selma Lagerlof

... understand their ways of thinking and speaking, is at least as important as that he should be a competent historian or mathematician or man of letters. If the State, or voluntary effort, or a combination of the two, could secure the permanent presence of such a teacher in every district where men work hard, and yet have leisure enough to cultivate their intellects, a yawning gap in our educational ...
— Prime Ministers and Some Others - A Book of Reminiscences • George W. E. Russell

... too, wanted to know if I had stolen the dog. I said no, I didn't steal. 'Well,' he asked, 'if you don't steal, how do you get a living?' I said, 'I'm getting it now.' He said it must be a hard job. I replied, 'Golly, you're right, governor, this 'ere bag is that 'eavy it drags me vitals out; wot's it got inside of it—bricks?' Then he drove me off and said I was a cheeky little devil, but ...
— The Tale of Lal - A Fantasy • Raymond Paton

... "Hard lines," he said. "But why don't you ask your brother to give you a fair show; put you in the sixth ...
— The New Boy at Hilltop • Ralph Henry Barbour

... kind but anxious letter of the 10th, the day before yesterday, and hasten to reply to it by the courier who goes to-day. Indeed, dearest Uncle, I have worked hard this last week to bring about something conciliatory, and I hope and trust I have succeeded. Lord Melbourne, who left Claremont on the same day as we did, was confined to the house till yesterday, when he arrived here, by a lumbago ...
— The Letters of Queen Victoria, Volume 1 (of 3), 1837-1843) • Queen Victoria

... the constabulary in apprehending criminals has been both praiseworthy and noteworthy. The courage and efficiency which have often been displayed by its officers and men in hard-fought engagements with Moro outlaws or with organized bands of thieves and brigands have been beyond praise. Many of its officers have rendered invaluable service in bringing the people of the more unruly non-Christian ...
— The Philippines: Past and Present (vol. 1 of 2) • Dean C. Worcester

... a can of soup with a hole in the top, made by driving a nail through the tin, and we sucked the soup through the hole. The next course was fish, each man having a can of sardines, and we ate them with hard tack. Then we had a game course, consisting of fried elk, and then a salad of canned baked beans, and coffee with condensed milk, and a spoonful or two of condensed milk for ice cream. When the banquet was over the leader of the bandits rapped on the stone floor of the cave with the butt of his ...
— Peck's Bad Boy With the Cowboys • Hon. Geo. W. Peck

... conquered, or my term expires, or Congress or the country forsake me; and I would publicly appeal to the country for this new force were it not that I fear a general panic and stampede would follow, so hard it is to have a thing understood as it really is. I think the new force should be all, or nearly all, infantry, principally because such can be raised most cheaply ...
— The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Complete - Constitutional Edition • Abraham Lincoln

... represent, the myths concerning them are so numerous and explicit as to render it certain that some such connection was imagined by the myth-makers. The superstition concerning the hand of glory is not so hard to interpret. In the mythology of the Finns, the storm-cloud is a black man with a bright copper hand; and in Hindustan, Indra Savitar, the deity who slays the demon of the cloud, is golden-handed. The selection of the hand of a man who has been hanged ...
— Myths and Myth-Makers - Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative Mythology • John Fiske

... the rigging, and in an instant there she was, driving along stem-on right for us—or, rather, for the spot that we should occupy when she reached it. There was now only one way of avoiding a disastrous collision, and that was by putting our helm hard up, and, at all risks, jibing round upon the other tack; and this we accordingly did, missing the brig by a hair's-breadth, but springing our foremast-head so badly as the trysail jibed over, that ...
— The Pirate Slaver - A Story of the West African Coast • Harry Collingwood

... permits a lady to win whether she has the ability or not. To a really athletic girl, pitted against a man in an equal contest, nothing is more humiliating than to realize that her opponent is not putting forth all his powers. There are some men who will never try too hard to win from a woman. This stranger was evidently not of that type, ...
— The Motor Girls on Crystal Bay - The Secret of the Red Oar • Margaret Penrose

... to bring him back. Cortez came down from the interior to the coast, deprived Narvaez of his command, and took possession of his men. With this unexpected reinforcement he was able to conquer Mexico, the capital of an illimitable empire. There was plenty of hard fighting, for the dominant race about the king was warlike. They were invaders, who reigned by force, and as they worshipped beings of the nether world who were propitiated with human sacrifice, they took their victims from the subject ...
— Lectures on Modern history • Baron John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton

... shop the woman turned and looked at her, and, leaving the buns, came and stood behind the counter. For a moment she looked at Sara very hard indeed, and then her ...
— A Little Princess • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... just why it is so hard, Evan. He is Great Heart. You named him well. Listen—you watch him now. He is as gentle as he said he would be that night—gentle toward me, I mean. And more. You ...
— The Little Lady of the Big House • Jack London

... number of seals to be killed in any one year. The Canadians were not bound by these rules, and the herds have been nearly destroyed. In recent years large deposits of gold have been found in Alaska and in neighboring portions of Canada. But the Canadian deposits are hard to reach without first going through Alaska. This fact has made it more difficult to agree with Great Britain as to the boundary ...
— A Short History of the United States • Edward Channing

... involuntary glance at his rifle; made the slightest motion; hesitated, looking hard at me. I shook ...
— The Reckoning • Robert W. Chambers

... the tyrranny of France, by procurement of the Bischopis, as ye all weall aneuch know: How long I continewed prisoneir, what torment I susteaned in the galaies, and what war the sobbes of my harte, is now no tyme to receat: This onelie I can nocht conceall, whiche mo than one have hard me say, when the body was far absent from Scotland, that my assured houp was, in oppin audience, to preache in Sanctandrois befoir I depairtod this lyeff. And thairfoir (said he,) My Lordis, seing that God, above the expectatioun of many, hath brocht the body to the ...
— The Works of John Knox, Vol. 1 (of 6) • John Knox

... blandest months in the year. Of every hundred who cross the Atlantic for the first time, I am confident that two-thirds endure more than they had done in all the five years preceding—more than they would do during two months' hard labor as convicts in a State Prison. Of our two hundred, I think fifty did not see a healthy or really happy hour during the passage; while as many more were sufferers for at least half the time. ...
— Glances at Europe - In a Series of Letters from Great Britain, France, Italy, - Switzerland, &c. During the Summer of 1851. • Horace Greeley

... Aleck felt of his back and took off his coat. He squeezed the rubber rabbit so hard that it exploded with a bang, scaring himself ...
— The Rover Boys on Treasure Isle - or The Strange Cruise of the Steam Yacht. • Edward Stratemeyer (AKA Arthur M. Winfield)

... enough for Stubtail, who was too hard at work drawing on his tight gloves to think of anything else, and away he trotted with the fox; who took him to a lonely hollow in the wood, where, sure enough, there were about fifty other foxes clustered together, but who looked ...
— Red, White, Blue Socks, Part First - Being the First Book • Sarah L Barrow

... without effecting anything of importance. Nevertheless the enterprise shown by the young general had the double effect of heartening his own troops and of undermining the overweening confidence of the enemy. A hard frost in December enabled Luxemburg to penetrate into Holland, but a rapid thaw compelled a hasty withdrawal. The only road open to him was blocked by a fortified post at Nieuwerbrug, but Colonel Vin et Pain, who ...
— History of Holland • George Edmundson

... we call "the strip," however, led to an improvement in the plan, which made it better in every way. It was clear that even if "the strip" were quite wide, the moon would have to be a good way off, and, in proportion, hard to see. If, however, we would satisfy ourselves with a moon four thousand miles away, THAT could be seen on the earth's surface for three or four thousand miles on each side; and twice three thousand, or six thousand, is one fourth of the largest circumference of the earth. ...
— The Brick Moon, et. al. • Edward Everett Hale

... heaven and earth amaz'd! 'Tis hard to say Which is more stupid, or their gods or they: O Israel, trust the Lord, he hears and sees, He knows thy sorrows, and restores thy peace: His worship does a thousand comforts yield, He is thy help, and ...
— The Psalms of David - Imitated in the Language of The New Testament - And Applied to The Christian State and Worship • Isaac Watts

... was respectably dressed,—in silk iron-gray; she had crisped her flaky tresses into stiff hard ringlets, that fell like long screws from under a black velvet band. Mrs. Crane never wore a cap, nor could you fancy her in a cap; but the velvet band looked as rigid as if gummed to a hoop of steel. Her manner and tone ...
— What Will He Do With It, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... give the real reason, of course. "To take the trail, you! To ride all day and sleep on the hard ground! And the river trip, an unknown river with Heaven knows what rapids and other difficulties! A fragile little thing ...
— The Woman from Outside - [on Swan River] • Hulbert Footner

... captured—of which fight he alone of all his companions had survived—he was sorely wounded; and though in time his wounds had healed he remained but a weakly man, and the service to which his captors forced him was hard. So it was that I had but little more than time to put him in the way leading to heaven before his spirit gladly forsook its weary body and ...
— The Aztec Treasure-House • Thomas Allibone Janvier

... gay music; a hum of conversation filled the air; pretty girls in white or blue or rose color were moving about; the wind drew with delicious coolness through the galleries; altogether it would have been hard to find on a summer morning a prettier ...
— A Little Country Girl • Susan Coolidge

... upright—much in the attitude of a watchful terrier on guard. In spite of herself she was nervous. Her eyes flashed continually from one window to the other. She noted the exact position of the communication cord. What it was that she feared, she would have been hard put to it to say. But in her own mind she was far from feeling the confidence displayed in her words. Not that she disbelieved in Tommy, but occasionally she was shaken with doubts as to whether anyone so simple and honest ...
— The Secret Adversary • Agatha Christie

... Sir George's suggestion. The British Ambassador then said that his Government might perhaps warn Austria that war would probably mean Russian intervention, which would involve France and Germany, and so make it hard for Great Britain to keep out of the conflict. M. Sazonof answered that Great Britain would sooner or later be dragged into war; war would be rendered more likely by Great Britain if she did not make common cause with Russia and France. President ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume I (of 8) - Introductions; Special Articles; Causes of War; Diplomatic and State Papers • Various

... fitful gusts between A sound came from the land; It was the sound of the trampling surf On the rocks and the hard sea-sand. ...
— The Golden Treasury of American Songs and Lyrics • Various

... capacity for leadership. Sociable, open-handed, full of energy, direct, aggressive, shrewd, daring, a hard fighter, a loyal friend, an organizer and a man of his word, he was essentially a man of action. In politics he was practical and straight-forward. He wanted results, not reforms, and results meant accepting the prevailing methods and using ...
— The United States Since The Civil War • Charles Ramsdell Lingley

... a pore man of his Beer, but to rob a poor Made Servant of her 2 Ginneys reward for behaviour like a Angel for four long weary years in the same place, be it a good 'un or a werry ard 'un, and to purwent a lot of pore hard working Men and Women from getting their little stock of Coles in at about a quarter of the reglar price! In course it ain't to be supposed as Washupfool Books and Honnerabel Markisses can know or care much about the price of Coals, altho there is one Most Honnerabel Markis, from whom ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 98, March 22, 1890 • Various

... 'It's very hard, in a country like England, for a young woman to set herself in opposition to the prejudices of that sort,' said ...
— Barchester Towers • Anthony Trollope

... we shall learn of masses of soft coal that have fallen upon this earth, if in no instance has it been asserted that the masses did not fall, but were upon the ground in the first place; if we have many instances, this time we turn down good and hard the mechanical reflex that these masses were carried from one place to another in whirlwinds, because we find it too difficult to accept that whirlwinds could so select, or so specialize in a peculiar substance. Among writers of books, the ...
— The Book of the Damned • Charles Fort

... difficulties and dangers. We are far from having found the formula of its combination with the historical elements of our apologetic. It is exposed, therefore, to a damaging fire not only from unspiritualist psychology and pathology but also from the side of scholastic dogma. It is hard to admit on equal terms a partner to the old undivided rule of books and learning. With Charles Lamb, we cry in some distress, "must knowledge come to me, if it come at all, by some awkward experiment of intuition, and no longer by this familiar ...
— Evolution in Modern Thought • Ernst Haeckel

... modesty. The world into which we are born is the world of reality. When a man goes away from the market of real things with empty hands and empty stomach, merely filling his bag with big sounding words, I wonder why he ever came into this hard world at all. Did these men get their appointment from the epicures of the religious world, to play set tunes on sweet, pious texts in that pleasure garden where blossom airy nothings? I neither affect those tunes nor do I find any ...
— The Home and the World • Rabindranath Tagore

... of the sword. There it was necessary to cut the osiers and other bands, with which the Indians had fastened the beams. While thus occupied they were exposed to a galling fire and received many wounds. Notwithstanding all these obstacles, they gained one palisade after the other until, by hard fighting, they arrived at the place of ...
— Ferdinand De Soto, The Discoverer of the Mississippi - American Pioneers and Patriots • John S. C. Abbott

... home and wife and children, in the intercourse with friends and acquaintance, we have much to make us contented, much, very much, to be thankful for. "To watch the corn grow, or the blossoms set; to draw hard breath over ploughshare or spade; to read, to think, to love, to pray,"—these, says John Ruskin, "are the things that make men happy." And these are things that, in some measure at least, are within the reach ...
— Men of the Bible; Some Lesser-Known Characters • George Milligan, J. G. Greenhough, Alfred Rowland, Walter F.

... should not be overlooked that any presumptive hard usage which the vassal peoples might look for at the hands of the German dynasty would necessarily be tempered with considerations of expediency as dictated by the exigencies of usufruct. The Imperial establishment has shown itself to be wise, indeed more ...
— An Inquiry Into The Nature Of Peace And The Terms Of Its Perpetuation • Thorstein Veblen

... of a young girl who had been working very hard to obtain a position in one of the departments but without success and who, thoroughly discouraged, came to the tree early one morning and made the wish that to her and her family meant the actual necessities ...
— As I Remember - Recollections of American Society during the Nineteenth Century • Marian Gouverneur

... young inventor did not lose his head. He put his wheel hard over and then, leaping to his motor, sent it full speed forward. Not a moment too soon had he acted, for an instant later the other boat shot past the stern of the ARROW, hitting it a severe but glancing blow. Tom's boat quivered from end to end and he quickly shut ...
— Tom Swift and his Motor-boat - or, The Rivals of Lake Carlopa • Victor Appleton

... insisted. "If it shocks you I can't help it. I don't want to live, and I don't want my child to live, either. Life is too hard. If—if I had had any choice in the matter, I would never have been born. And so if I die before the baby comes, it is the best thing that could possibly happen for either of us. And I think—I think"—she hesitated momentarily before a name she ...
— The Rocks of Valpre • Ethel May Dell

... oldest friends. A little shiver passed through her as she reflected that here, in his own country, where his history was best known, the feeling towards him, whatever it rested upon, might very probably be strongest. Well, it was hard upon them!—hard upon her mother—hard upon her. In her first ecstasy over the old ancestral house and the dignities of her new position, how little she had thought of these things! And there they were all ...
— Marcella • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... more than any other race exposed to the adverse moral influences of alienism, must, both in individuals and in groups, have suffered some corresponding moral degradation; but in fact they have escaped with less of abjectness and less of hard hostility towards the nations whose hand has been against them, than could have happened in the case of a people who had neither their adhesion to a separate religion founded on historic memories, nor their characteristic family affectionateness. ...
— Impressions of Theophrastus Such • George Eliot

... o' th' isle, The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile: Curs'd be I that did so! All the charms Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you! 340 For I am all the subjects that you have, Which first was mine own king: and here you sty me In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me ...
— The Tempest - The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] • William Shakespeare

... any of my wife's fingers. The first of the three is, that it is certain, by your grace's leave, that wheresoever my wife is at this present hour, whether sitting, or standing, or lying down, this ring would never remain upon her thumb, whereas you can plainly see that it was hard to draw it over the joint of the little finger of the hand whence this was cut; the second thing is, that my wife has never let pass one Saturday since I have known her without paring her nails before going to bed, and you can see fully that the nail of this little finger has not been pared ...
— The Mabinogion • Lady Charlotte Guest

... the pig lest it should upset the churn; but when he got up, and saw the pig had already knocked the churn over, and stood there, rooting and grunting amongst the cream which was running all over the floor, he got so wild with rage that he quite forgot the ale-barrel, and ran at the pig as hard as he could. He caught it, too, just as it ran out of doors, and gave it such a kick that piggy lay for dead on the spot. Then all at once he remembered he had the tap in his hand; but when he got down to the cellar, every drop of ale had ...
— Children's Literature - A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes • Charles Madison Curry

... and flatulent food, and accompanied by various sore pains in the rectum, diminish more and more, and give place to normal evacuations, first for days, next for weeks, although they continue to alternate more or less with constipation, or painful, insufficient, hard stool, until they terminate sooner or later, according as the disease is more or less deep-seated, and had lasted more or less long, in permanent restoration of the normal secretions and excretions of the digestive organs. At the same time the many distresses ...
— Apis Mellifica - or, The Poison of the Honey-Bee, Considered as a Therapeutic Agent • C. W. Wolf

... other hand, he labours, with little success, to give a negative to the question whether the latter had the Spanish author before him, and availed himself of his labours. Corneille, it is true, gives out the whole as his own invention; but we must not forget, that only when hard pressed did he acknowledge how much he owed to the author of the Spanish Cid. The chief circumstance of the plot, namely, the uncertainty of the tyrant Phocas as to which of the two youths is his own son, or the son of his murdered ...
— Lectures on Dramatic Art - and Literature • August Wilhelm Schlegel trans John Black

... was injured in so doing. At the present time, I am well aware that the word is proscribed even in the State's Prisons; everybody being just as good as everybody else; though some have the misfortune to be sentenced to hard labour, while others are permitted to go at large. As a matter of course, the selections made through the ballot-boxes, only go to prove that "one man is ...
— Afloat And Ashore • James Fenimore Cooper

... On his head? No. On his back? Yes, but after a fashion of his own, perfectly natural and entirely independent of basket, or receptacle of any kind in which to place it. I have now in my garden some half-dozen of these labourers at work, removing immense masses of clay, which are nearly as hard as flint, and how do they manage? My friend Jumah Khan reverts his arms, and clasping his hands together behind his back, receives the pyramidal load, which generally overtops his head, and thus he conveys it to its destination," &c.—Colburn's United Service Magazine, December, 1852, ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 186, May 21, 1853 • Various

... After a hard and inhuman servitude of twelve years, two young citizens, who were Plato's disciples, and had been instructed in his maxims, formed a conspiracy against Clearchus, and slew him; but, though they delivered their country from the tyrant, the tyranny ...
— The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, • Charles Rollin

... not hear, for he was walking defiantly down the main street, waving his gold-headed cane, while the boy clung to his hand, and walked with bent head, crying silently, but fighting hard to ...
— Quicksilver - The Boy With No Skid To His Wheel • George Manville Fenn

... He sprang on to help him. The bank, happily, shelved, and together they dragged the nearly drowned man to the shore. He was dressed as a labourer, and his rough hands showed that he was accustomed to hard work. It was too dark to distinguish his features. After they had rubbed him for some time, he gave signs of life; and on his further recovering they placed him on Willie's horse, and, supporting him on either side, led him up to the house, which ...
— The Gilpins and their Fortunes - A Story of Early Days in Australia • William H. G. Kingston

... among his associates, and Hutter heard this pledge with a satisfaction that was not concealed. Even the great personal strength of such an aid became of moment, in moving the ark, as well as in the species of hand-to-hand conflicts, that were not unfrequent in the woods; and no commander who was hard pressed could feel more joy at hearing of the arrival of reinforcements, than the borderer experienced at being told this important auxiliary was not about to quit him. A minute before, Hutter would ...
— The Deerslayer • James Fenimore Cooper

... hard for you to believe," said one of his most trusted woman-friends. "I grant your arguments: there is no gainsaying them. But you are fighting the same thing again that you do not understand: the feminine nature that ...
— The Americanization of Edward Bok - The Autobiography of a Dutch Boy Fifty Years After • Edward William Bok

... entire nation finally evolved into one of extraordinary springing propensities. What will you think, when I tell you that any of our men or women could jump over the highest building there is in the world today, or run faster than any of your steam locomotives? It seems hard for you to realize such things, but still these are facts. In these days, the Apeman devotes his time to the construction of machinery with which to carry around his decaying and almost useless frame, while the Sageman utilized the power of his own ...
— Born Again • Alfred Lawson

... straight during the seasoning process. Recourse should be had to the plane, a rather small metal one in good order with a keen edged iron. This must be closely regulated, or the surface worked upon will not be even but torn; hard woods, as before observed, require humouring and working down gently. The exact arching—in good work—of the ebony should be governed by a cut mould, one for each end. These may be made of some hard wood or metal, such as zinc, ...
— The Repairing & Restoration of Violins - 'The Strad' Library, No. XII. • Horace Petherick

... chieftain said: "Come up hither, I say, O Hallblithe, and bring thy war-thrall with thee if thou wilt. But delay not, unless it be so that thou art neither hungry nor thirsty; and good sooth thou shouldst be both; for men say that the ravens are hard to satisfy. Come then and make ...
— The Story of the Glittering Plain - or the Land of Living Men • William Morris

... "We will love poor Maggie all the same," she cried aloud, but not quite as demonstratively as Madam Conway wished; and, in a very unamiable frame of mind, the old lady accused her of being selfish and hard-hearted. ...
— Maggie Miller • Mary J. Holmes

... pleasure we give the name of Beauty. But to produce and enjoy Beauty is not the function of art. Beauty—or rather, the sensation of Beauty—is what the Greeks would call an epigignomenon ti telos, words hard to translate, something between a by-product and a supervening perfection, a thing like—as Aristotle[54] for once beautifully says of pleasure—"the bloom of youth to a healthy ...
— Ancient Art and Ritual • Jane Ellen Harrison



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